My friend shared this article with me this morning: Autistic Toddler and His Mother Removed From Plane For “Uncontrollable Behavior” I was just completely appalled at it.
A mother and her 2 1/2 year old autistic son were kicked off an American Easgle flight Monday after the crew deemed the child “uncontrollable”.
This is a quote from the article: “the flight attendant made things worse.
“She kept coming over and tugging his seatbelt to make it tighter, ‘This has to stay tight.’ And then he was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And she kept coming over and reprimanding him and yelling at him.”
Where is the understanding here? What good does yelling at anyone do much less a child? What if this family was on their way to a medical appointment they needed to make? Was the comfort of the other passengers more important than the needs of this family? Apparently American Eagle thinks so.
There are unruley typical children on planes all the time. Crying or screaming babies on long flights whose crying is “uncontrollable”. Are they next to be kicked off planes? What, are airlines going to start stopping in mid-flight to get them off? Yes, that is a ridiculous thought and so is this situation.
It is my hope that this family gets justice here in this unjust instance. And that the distress this chid was put through is taken into account.
All flight crew members need to be trained in dealing with autistic people from children to adults. In case they haven’t heard it affects 1 in 150 children. Are they planning on kicking them all off?
Things like this just burn me up.
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